We’ve been having such creative fun with our latest sermon series at Peace, “Poetic Imagination,” exploring the richness of poetic imagery both in scripture and in human expression. If you’re thinking “this is fluff, not theology,” you would be wrong! Beauty and creative expression are core to God’s character, to our spirituality, and to our experience of the both the Divine and the ordinary. Our creativity is part of our Imago Dei. Poets teach us how to observe, and blur the lines between the sacred and the profane. They give language to the human condition and expression to our depths. I’ve been writing poems and song lyrics all my life, and naturally I had to write a litany around this theme.
God, many things speak to us of your character and beauty
If only we are paying attention.
We ask to be both conduits of your light
And its interpreters.
Our experience and our intuition
Point us ever in your direction.
May we learn to notice what the poets notice:
Nature in its infinite detail,
Breath in its passing uniqueness,
Body in its glorious being,
Time in its ruthless flow
Emotion in its varied intensity,
Thought in its limited capacity,
Spirit in her radiant beauty.
And may our observation bring us further into acceptance,
Into gratitude,
Into grace,
Into eternity.
As we become more closely integrated with your spirit,
Aligned with divine purpose -
Having love as our authority
And compassion as our tool -
May we help rewrite the world
Bringing the standard of heaven to all the earth.
Amen
For more litanies, check out my Patreon, and my new book, available in paperback and kindle ebook.